Research Methods

Part I Introduction to Scientific Reasoning

Chapter 1 Psychology Is a Way of Thinking
Research Producers, Research Consumers
Why the Producer Role Is Important
Producing research can help deepen ones understanding of psychological research and teach one
more about how psychological scientists ask questions and how they think about their discipline.

Why the Consumer Role is Important

Understanding research and being a good consumer, enables you to ask the appropriate questions so
you can evaluate information correctly. This also applies to other types of information you encounter
in daily life.

The Benefits of Being a Good Consumer

Being a good consumer will help you understanding the research methods and results. Your acquired
skills will help you making the right choices.

How Scientists Approach Their Work

Scientists Are Empiricists
Empiricism involves using evidence from the senses or from instruments that assist the senses (such
as thermometers, timers, photographs, weight scales and questionnaires) as the basis for conclusion.

Scientists Test Theories: The Theory-Data Cycle

When you take systematic steps to solve a problem,
you are participating in something similar to the
theory-data cycle.
The theory-data cycle is the process of collecting data
to test, change, or update theories.
 A theory is a set of statements that describe
general principles about how variables relate
to one another.
 A hypothesis (prediction) is the specific
outcome the researcher expects to observe
in a study if the theory is accurate.
 Data are a set of observations that can
support or challenge the theory.

Features of good scientific theories:

 Good theories are supported by data
When it is supported by a large quantity and variety of evidence by using multiple studies and
a variety of methods.
 Good theories are falsifiable
A theory must lead to hypotheses that could actually fail to support the theory when tested.
  Good theories have parsimony
Theories are expected to be simple. When two theories explain the data equally well, the
simpler theory is preferable.

Theories do not prove anything. In science, data can support or be consistent with a theory.
Scientists evaluate their theories based on the weight of the evidence, for and against.

Scientists Tackle Applied and Basic Problems

Applied research
This addresses a practical problem form real-world context. It might test the efficacy of a treatment
for depression in a sample of trauma survivors.

Basic research
This is aimed to enhance the general body of knowledge. It might be done to understand the
structure of the visual system.

Translational research
This is used to form the bridge between basic and applied research. It might translate basic research
on the biochemistry of cell membranes into a new drug for schizophrenia.

Scientists Dig Deeper

Psychological scientists rarely conduct a single investigation and then stop. Each study leads then to
ask a new question.

Scientists Make It Public: The Publication Process

Scientists submit their papers to a scientific journal to make it public. The articles in here are peer-
reviewed by experts on the subject. Peer reviewers are supposed to ensure that the articles contain
innovative, well-done studies.

Scientists Talk to the World: From Journal to Journalism

Journalism produces news and commentary that is shown on television, in magazines and
newspapers. These sources are usually not written by scientists and they are meant to reach the
general public. Journalists do not always select reliable, important research for their stories. Even
when they do, they do not describe the research and its outcomes accurately.
The “Mozart effect” is an example of science misrepresentation on the media. Rauscher
found that when students heard Mozart play for 10 minutes, they performed better on a subsequent
spatial intelligence test when compared with students who had listened to silence or to a monotone
speaking voice. Unfortunately, the headlines in the media wrote: “Mozart makes you smart”. In
conclusion, reading the original scientific article us the best way to get the true information.

Chapter 2 Sources of Information: Why Research Is Best and

How to Find It
The Research vs. Your Experience
Experience Has No Comparison Group
Basing conclusions on personal experience is problematic because daily life usually doesn't include
comparison experiences. A companions group enables us to compare what would happen both with
and without the thing we are interested in. Drawing conclusions about a treatment requires
comparing data systematically and processing the data into four categories:
1. Treated – improved
 2. Treated – unimproved
3. Untreated – improved
4. Untreated – unimproved

Experience Is Confounded
In daily life, there are many possible explanations for an outcome. Research calls these alternative
explanations confounds (confusions). In a research setting, scientists prevent these confounds by
carefully changing only one factor at a time.

Research Is Better Than Experience

In a controlled study, researchers set up at least one comparison group that controls for potential
confounds. If one of the participants in the research group would have been asked about their
experience, they only would have been able to see and tell about the one condition they have been
in. Making their view an inside view. A researcher has a broader view from the outside, including all
possible comparison groups. With an outside view it is possible to compare patterns between groups
and see the bigger picture, which would not be possible through a subjective view.

Research Is Probabilistic
Behavioural research is probabilistic, meaning that its findings are not expected to explain all cases all
of the time. The conclusions of the research are meant to explain a certain proportion of the possible
cases. Scientific conclusions are based on patterns that emerge only when researchers set up
comparison groups and test many people.

The research vs. Your Intuition

Ways That Intuition Is Biased
Five examples of biased reasoning:
1. Being swayed by a good story
Accepting a conclusion just because it makes sense or feels natural. We tend to believe good
stories, but they will not always turn out to be accurate. When empirical evidence contradicts
the common sense, we should adjust our beliefs.
2. Being persuaded by what comes easily to mind
It is also known as the availability heuristic, which states that things that pop up easily in our
mind tend to guide our thinking. It might lead us to wrongly estimate the number of something
or how often something happens.
3. Failing to think about what we cannot see
It is also known as the present/present bias, which states that we often fail to look for
absences, however, it is easy to notice what is present. We notice the times when both the
treatment and the desired outcome are present but are less likely to notice the times when the
treatment or the desired outcome was missing. The availability heuristic plays a role.
Scientists train themselves to ask: compared to what?
4. Focusing on the evidence we like best
It is also known as the confirmation bias, which states that we have the tendency to only look
at information that agrees with what we already believe. Scientists may enact this by asking
questions that are likely to give the desired answers, the hypothesis confirming questions.
Unlike the hypothesis-testing process, this doesn’t allow to disconfirm the hypothesis and
therefore is not scientific.
5. Biased about being biased
It is also known as a bias blind spot, the believe that we are unlikely to fall prey to the other
biases previously described. This causes us to conclude that our decisions are objective, and
others’ decisions are the biased ones.
The Intuitive Thinker vs. the Scientific Reasoner
Researchers have trained themselves to guard against the many pitfalls of intuition and they draw
more accurate conclusions as a result.

Trusting Authorities on the Subject

Before taking the advice of authorities, ask yourself about the source of their ideas. It is better to
base our beliefs on research, rather than experience of intuition. It is important to notice that not all
research is reliable of well-conducted.

Finding and Reading the Research

Consulting Scientific Sources
Psychological scientists publish their research in three kinds of sources:
1. Journal articles
Journal articles are written with other psychological scientists as an audience. They can be
either empirical articles (results of a research study) or review articles (provide a summary of
all the publishes studies that have been done in one research areas). Some review articles use
meta-analysis. Before being published in a journal, these articles must be peer-reviewed,
making them the most prestigious forms of scientific publication.
2. Chapters in edited books
An edited book is a collection of chapters on a common topic, each written by a different
author. Book chapters are a good source for summaries of a collection of researches that a
scientist has done. The editor only invites authors who are familiar with empirical evidence
on the topic.
3. Full length books
In general, psychologists do not write many full-length scientific books for an audience of
other psychologists.

Finding Scientific Sources

Trustworthy sources on psychological topics can be found on the university’s library or databases,
such as PsycINFO or Google Scholar.

Reading the Research

Most empirical articles are written according to the APA rules in the same order:
 Abstract
 Introduction
 Method
 Results
 Discussion
 References

Finding Research in Less Scholarly Places

Other sources were you can find psychological research are prone to be inaccurate, so they should
always be double-checked.

Chapter 10 Ethnography
Ethnography, or participant observation, is a research method where researchers submerge
themselves in the lives and social worlds of the people they want to understand.
Ethnography: Historical Roots
Ethnography is the most important tool of anthropology. Groundbreaking anthropologists spent long
periods of time in remote places, learning and describing the intricate rules and customs rule
everyday life.
Sociologists studied subcultures within their own culture, while anthropologists studied
people from different cultures. Over time, this strong division broke down, partly due to
globalization, the development of worldwide social and economic relationships.
Today, these fields are only differentiated by the tools and focus of their work.

The Diverse Roles of the Ethnographer

There are four roles a researcher can adopt when doing fieldwork.

Complete participant
Complete participants are fieldworkers who “go undercover” by immersing themselves in a fieldwork
site and keeping their identities as researchers a secret. These researchers face many challenges:
 Constant anxiety that their true identities will be discovered.
 Always “performing”.
 Deception may cause them uneasiness or discomfort.
 Deception becomes harder when they build relationships in the field.
 The fear of going native (losing their identity).

Participant Observer
Participants observers are researchers that tell at least some of the people being studied about his or
her real identity as a researcher while still fully immersing themselves in the setting. This is the most
common role adopted in fieldwork today.
The lack of deception means that people know they are being studied. The subjects informed
consent can be assumed by their acceptance of the researchers’ presented in their world, since they
can choose to stay or exit the study.
On the one hand, the researcher is free to ask questions and take notes in public, although
they try to not constantly remind people of their identity. On the other hand, the researcher’s
presence may change the way people behave.
The Hawthorne effect refers to the fact that merely being observed often changes subjects’
behaviour. This effect fades quickly when researchers are present for a sustained period of time.

Observer
In the observer role, the researcher test people they are being observed but does not take part in the
subjects’ activities and lives.
By not participating, the researcher might miss the “feel” of the life they are studying.
However, they might not be capable to do what their subjects are doing.

Covert Observer
Covert observers observe people who do not know they are being observed or studied. This way,
they pose the least danger of altering the dynamics of the situation they are studying. However, they
run the greatest risk of misunderstanding the situation.
Covert observer studies are frequently the first stage of what will become a participant
observer study.
Systematic observation is a method of covert observation in which the researcher follows a
checklist and timeline for observing phenomena.
What Topics Do Ethnographers Study?
There are a few favored topics in ethnography:
 Community studies
Studies that mostly relate to the way anthropologists study whole villages, tribes or towns. Or
the way sociologists study neighbourhoods. They explain how communities develop and
change, and how neighbours interact.
 Deviant subgroups and behaviours
 People who are suffering or lack power
These lives are often very different form the lives of the mostly middle-class and upper-class
college students and graduates who will read these ethnographies.

Theory and Research in Ethnography

Approaches to Theory in Ethnography
 Grounded theory approach
The researcher develops a theory based on experience and observations in the field.
 Extended case study approach
The researcher starts with an established theory and chooses a field site to improve upon or
modify the existing theory.
Most ethnographers agree that fieldwork must do more than just describe the world they are
studying.

Validity and Reliability in Ethnographic Research

Participants observation is not very reliable because it relies on researchers’ perception and
interpretations. It does have a great validity because the researcher becomes so close to the people
that are being studied.
Most ethnographers believe that their research has something to say about the bigger
picture.
By constructing an inconvenience sample, the ethnographer is asked about his own
interpretations of what happened in the field to get a more critical eye.

Conducting an Ethnographic Field Study

There are clear steps to follow when conducting an ethnographic field study:
1. Choose a topic and site for the research
2. Negotiating access to the site
3. Forming relationships with subjects
4. Spending time in the field and taking field notes
5. Deciding when and how to leave the field
6. Writing up the results of the study

Choosing a Topic
The most difficult and unpredictable aspect of fieldwork is the path from a broad topic or site to a
research question. Some researchers start with their topic or site, while others start with a question
or a topic.
Researchers use purposive sampling, a sampling strategy in which cases are deliberately
selected on basis of features that distinguish them from other cases.

Negotiating Access, or “Getting In”

Insiders and outsiders
The process of gaining access is dependent on whether the researcher is an insider or an outsider.
Insiders are already part of the life in a site, while outsiders are not.
 Insiders and outsiders bring different strengths and weaknesses to studying subgroups
within a society. In each case, the researcher should be aware of the influences of their status.

Gaining access through gatekeepers

Insiders have the task of making all that is familiar unfamiliar. Outsiders often have to persuade
gatekeepers to let them in. Gatekeepers are authorized people to allow outsiders into the setting.

Interacting with Subjects

Early interactions
The people with whom an ethnographer interacts during the early days of fieldwork can have long-
term consequences.

Relationships between researchers and subjects

Maintaining neutral and objective in the field helps the researcher behave as an objective scientist in
the field. This means staying away from developing deep relationships with subjects.

Building rapport
As an ethnographer, you need to develop a close and harmonious relationship that allows people to
understand one another and communicate well. This is called a rapport. It is like making friends in
your personal life, but it limits the ‘real you’.

Key informants
Most fieldworkers get help from key informants. These are people whom usually are quite central or
popular in the research setting and who share their knowledge with the field working.

Producing Data: Field Notes

Field notes are the data produced by a fieldworker. They are the raw material that will become the
ethnography. They should include direct observations, inferences (conclusions), your own feelings
and reactions and your social analysis of the situation. The difference between direct observations
and inferences should be very clear in you field notes.

Leaving the Field

When you reach saturation, it is time to leave the field. Saturation is when new materials (interviews,
observations) fail to yield new insights and simply reinforce what the researcher already knows.
Sometimes there is a natural end to a study, but often there is not.